You can’t talk about digitally painting or sketching on a mobile device without mentioning Procreate. The app first launched for the iPad in 2011, and has been the definite favorite of digital artists everywhere for almost a decade.
Procreate Pocket, the version of the app for the iPhone, has always been good. But it’s always been somewhat infamous for lagging behind its iPad counterpart. With the app’s latest update, however, we might see that change.
Procreate Pocket Gets Massive Overhaul
The official Procreate Twitter account tweeted an image out to signal that Procreate Pocket was being updated.
📱 #ProcreatePocket pic.twitter.com/bbi9Ze1AV4
— Procreate (@Procreate) February 2, 2021
Even if you were to completely miss the announcement above or the patch notes written in the App Store, you would know that things were different upon simply opening a canvas.
The user interface of Procreate Pocket has been made much cleaner with adjustable cards that sit at the bottom of the screen. Each card is filled with panels of all the classic tools you know and love, it’s just so much easier to find and switch between them now.
Additionally, your hours spent digital painting won’t be as straining on the eyes, as the long-awaited dark mode is finally here.
window[‘gallery_1’] = new Swiper(‘#swipper-1’, {
direction: ‘horizontal’,
spaceBetween: 20,
slidesPerView: 1,
centeredSlides: true,
preventClicks: false,
observer: true,
observeParents: true,
loop: false,
keyboard: {
enabled: true
},
// If we need pagination
pagination: {
el: ‘.swiper-pagination’,
},
navigation: {
nextEl: ‘.swiper-button-next’,
prevEl: ‘.swiper-button-prev’,
},
});
var images = document.getElementsByClassName(“gallery-1-images”);
for (var i = 0; i It’s no exaggeration to say that Procreate Pocket has inherited all of the features that made Procreate for the iPad so beloved. The new additions include the Brush Studio, Animation Assist, transform and snapping tools, and the ability to create color palettes from images on your device.
Sick of customizing the default brushes? Check out our guide to installing custom brushes in Procreate.
Messing with colors has been made more fun with Procreate Pocket’s new gradient maps and filters. It only takes a few clicks to add effects such as half-tones, noise, and chromatic aberration.
Download: Procreate Pocket for iPhone ($4.99)
That said, the grandest part of the update by far is the addition of the Valkyrie graphics engine. Procreate Pocket now runs at a smooth 120 frames per second, working just as quickly as you can draw, paint, or sketch on your iPhone.
“The Valkyrie engine brings the ability to control every aspect of how brushes react and behave through the new Brush Studio,” says publisher Savage International in its press release.
The Procreate Pocket Update Does Not Disappoint
Obviously, the iPhone doesn’t nearly give you as much screen to work with as the iPad does, but Procreate Pocket makes very good use of the little you do have. The new version of Procreate Pocket is available right now as a free update for existing users.